Siblings Breakfast

We had a nice siblings breakfast this morning. The cinnamon rolls turned out well and we had plenty to spare so I brought the smaller containers to my neighbors before coming to work. The rolls are perfect if need something that is quick to fix in the morning as long as you have time the night before. You can find the recipe on cooks.com here. The fudge didn't turn out as well. It's more like really sweet fudge tasting icing. I'm not sure what I did wrong. Rob suggested using it as icing for brownies so I may give that a try. Or, maybe I'll put toothpicks in them and make them into frozen treats! Do any of you have a fudge recipe that works every time? My fudge works ok about every other time and I almost never use the same recipe twice, so if someone has a good recipe, I'd love to try it sometime.

Lydia and Elijah are headed off to college, so this will be their last sibling breakfast for a while. But, if Anna and Jubilee are willing, I'd like to keep having them, even though there are just the three of us!

Busy Evening

This evening I had intended to find some time to write a longer post, but here it is already 10 and I need to get some sleep. So, I'll just let you know how my strange evening went. I almost never cook anything. It's not necessarily because I don't like to cook, but I usually am busy doing other things and just eat something quick when I get hungry. Often if I go home after work, I'm starving when I get there and just want to eat something, anything. Today was no exception, but I stayed off my appetite by eating my traditional carrot on my way home and then some ritz crackers upon reaching my house while I slaved away at a nutritious home cooked meal of 33 cent boxed macaroni and cheese! Now, I don't like to waste time so while I waited for the water to boil and ate the crackers I begin to mix up some yeast dough for cinnamon rolls. That took longer than I though because I couldn't find my shortening and went next door to see my neighbors had any. She didn't have any, but I decided that the butter I had would surely work and left after a few minutes, When I got back home, my dough was already foaming (I guess the yeast was eager to grow!) so I hurriedly added the rest of the ingredients to the dough.

You know that stage when you're kneading bread dough by hand and it's still too sticky and you need just a cup more flour. Well it was at that point that I ran out of flour and realized I would have to clean off my hands and beg some from my neighbors once again. Thankfully the lady I live with saw my plight and had some in another jar. It was just enough to get the dough into the soft and perfect for rising stage.

So, by now the mac 'n cheese was ready and I took one bite and decided that I would attempt to make some fudge while I ate. I had some marshmallows left over from a Sunday School object lesson and had discovered a fudge recipe that used them and chocolate chips which I also had. It also called for evaporated milk so I scoured the cupboards, but found none. Another trip to see Pam . . . This time she had exactly what I needed! While getting the can, her little 1 year old, opened her cupboard and handed me a jar of baby food - this kid knows what he wants! So I opened it up and fed him since Pam was busy cooking dinner. By the time he finished one jar of baby food, I got called away by another neighbor to try this Internet connection since another guy from church was there to help him fix it. In my hurry, I forgot the can of evaporated milk and thus returned after a few minutes. By then, Pam had just about finished dinner and invited me to eat with them. I said, of course (her chicken fajita's look much better than my now cold macaroni)!

We had a good time talking over dinner and eventually I returned home to attempt the fudge. Well, it turned out I had everything else I needed except vanilla - who runs out of vanilla? Anyway, Pam had that and more butter which I needed to make frosting for the cinnamon rolls. Finally I begin to cook the fudge and then got to talk to Gemma (a friend of mine from college) as I continued to cook it (for 6 minutes after boiling) and then stir and stir and stir. It said to stir vigorously after the marshmallows melted for 1 minute. But the fudge never really did its thing so I finally just poured it in it's pudding-like state into the pan.

That took 20 minutes longer than I thought it would take so I was now late at getting to my other neighbors house. He needed a monkey to crawl in his attic and bring a cable from one side to his office on the other side of the house. I was perfect for the job! That was hot work, but I was glad to be able to be useful there. After that I had just enough time to mix up the frosting before sitting down here to write this.

So that's my evening! It was a good night though the cooking wasn't (in my mind) supposed to take so long. Usually a evening at home is spent in a less busy way and I'm able to read or type here. So, if you made it through this crazy post - congratulations and my apologies for wasting a chunk of your day. Tomorrow morning my siblings will come for the weekly sibling breakfast and we'll find out if the cinnamon rolls are any good. Good night!

Chicago Test Update

We finally received official word earlier this week that we did NOT in fact pass the test. So now we get to decide what changes to make and have parts made for another test. Though it's disappointing to have to re-test, it was the result we expected based on what we observed in the test.

Here's a side note on hobbies: Scrapbooking can be useful in an engineering job. I spent most of yesterday choosing the best of the 160+ pictures taken of the test and making "scrapbooking" them in Microsoft word. After seeing the documentation (or lack thereof) in other tests and looking at old pictures and having no idea what they were from we felt it important to document what we did. I also wanted to send pictures to some of the other individuals involved in the test as well as post it for our plant to see. So, if you like to scrapbook, maybe you should be an engineer! No? But seriously, it was fun to get the pictures together though by the end of the document I was absolutely ready to be done!

Good Habits

This morning I thought about habits in my own life and how they work. It's amazing to me how powerful a habit can be for good. According to dictionary.com a habit is "an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary."

Most of what I do is because of habits. There are many habits learned as a child that carry on for a lifetime. One example is bringing my Bible to church on Sunday mornings. That's a habit I didn't think much about until I saw how many children don't bring their Bibles - that habit hasn't yet been developed by them, but hopefully will be at some point. Other examples are things like brushing teeth, drinking coffee (or hating the taste as I do), reading before you go to sleep and more.

There are many bad habits that can be developed. A habit is I guess similar to an addiction. It's something you do just at times because you have an unconscious desire to do it. If aware of habit forming things, you can look at situations and consciously choose a habit that you would like to carry on for life. For example, in college if you eat in the cafeteria you could drink coke products with every meal. I do like coke (as people in the south call all varieties soft drinks) and could have easily developed that habit of drinking it most of the time. I do also like water and had a habit of drinking it with meals due to how I was raised. Since I realized that if I started a "coke habit" in college I would probably want to continue it later, I chose to drink water as a default and only occasionally drink coke.

It seems most of what I hear about habits deal with breaking bad ones instead of developing the good. Usually a bad habit can only be broken if it is replaced with something else. A google search for "bad habit" brought 1,890,000 results and "good habit" brought 402,000. So from that unscientific survey, we read and write more about the bad ones.

But, back to this morning. When I was about half a mile down the road, I wondered why in the world I do this. I don't really like to get up early, I don't like to run, I don't like being hot (or cold) so why in the world am I outside before light? The answer for today was simple: it's a habit. I don't think much about what time to set my alarm for each night. It goes off around 5 and I get up a little later, get my shoes and head for the door.

If you dig deeper into my reasoning, you'll find that I consciously chose to develop that habit almost two years ago and that I do enjoy having exerted energy in running. I also enjoy being outside each day. I walk instead of running every other day and I like walking as well because it gives me a chance to somewhat randomly thing about strange things like this.

There are other habits that I would like to develop. I have an idea of what a "perfect Miriam" would do and at times try to introduce a new habit. Things like keeping an organized and filed office at work, or always straightening my room at home, or stretching before and after I run are a few of the habits I don't yet have, but wish I did. I've tried at times to establish these habits, but haven't yet had success. As I think about these and other habit, I think I will chose one and strive to implement the action long enough to make it a habit. The real question is: which one shall I chose?

Asking God for Wisdom (James 1:5-12)

On Sunday evening, Pastor Tony continued his series on the book of James. He covered verses that are confusing to me and gave some suggestions as to his interpretation of them.

In verse 5, we find that God give wisdom bountifully (more than is required) and does not reproach us for asking for wisdom.

When we ask for wisdom, we are told in verse 6 that we must ask in faith without doubting. This is a hard verse to understand. How can a person know if they are asking in 100% faith? Other passages in the gospels talk about someone who doesn't have faith saying I believe help me with my unbelief. Is God making a requirement for us to work up complete faith in this one area alone and if we don't have it then he won't give us anything? It doesn't seem to match up with God's character and how he deals with man to say that a person who asks and doubts a little is an unstable man in ALL he does.

Pastor Tony shared how he has struggled with this passage and doesn't feel that he has it figured out. However he did point out that the would double minded means two minded. It might refer to going partially to God for wisdom and partially to the world. We should be single focused in going only to God for wisdom. He said that there is probably a greater aspect to this then we see.

No matter else the verses mean, we can be encouraged that in the person of Christ there is a great supply of wisdom for us.

Verse 9-11 speak of the rich and the humble brother. Pastor Tony pointed out that the more you get in life the more you are in a sense demoted because God chose those who are poor to be rich in faith. People never seem to think they have enough, but always want just a little bit more. God says that you have more when you have less. You are to boast in your poverty because you are rich in faith and because you have God. Having more will never complete you or make you happy. We should never find our contentment in material things that God gives us bit only in he person of Jesus. God does bless us at times with material things. If he has blessed you, praise him.

Verse 12 speaks of a crown of life that is not salvation but a special reward for those who persevere under the trials of life. It's a crown of victory given because you understood the trial and let God be glorified through it.

Ruth Musical

This week my sister Anna's musical Ruth-From Rejection to Redemption will be presented at my church (Fountain of Grace) in Prattville. I've been amazed to watch it come together in about 6 weeks of practices. Anna has done a great job of directing as well as acting in the play. The actors have learned their lines and the dances in an amazingly short period of time. I'm looking forward to watching the performance this weekend. It's been a fun thing to work on as a family - Mom's helping to coordinate, Dad's playing Boaz, Anna is Ruth, writer, director, choriographer and more, Elijah is taking video, Lydia is running lights, Jubilee is one of the characters (whose name I can't think of), and I'm running sound. Thanks for not just having the idea of the play, but for actually doing it Anna!

This is a short promotional video we made and played at church on Sunday. It will give you a taste of what the play is all about!

The Authority and Inerrancy of the Bible - Part 2

This is a continuation of review questions from Chapter two of the Wayne Gruden's book Bible Doctrine.

4. Define the term inerrancy and discuss how this idea can be consistent with the Bible's use of the language of ordinary, everyday speech.

Inerrancy defined by Dictionary.com states that it is 1) lack of error; infallibility. and 2) the belief that the Bible is free of error in matters of science as well as those of faith.

Bible Doctrine defines inerrancy as meaning that "Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything which is contrary to fact." So it means that the Bible always tell us the truth in what it talks about, not that it tells all the facts about every subject.

Though inerrant, the Bible still uses everyday ordinary language that is easily understood by regular people such as the sun rising or such as the number of casualties in a battle reported as 8,000 instead of 7,995 or other measurements. Approximate or round numbers are used in regular speech and are appropriate in many contexts in the Bible.

In the time that the Bible was written, exact quotes were not necessary in quoting someone - in fact quotation marks were not in use at all. So quotes were really usually simply a summary of the correct content of what the person said. So when we see quotes in our Bibles, we need to realize that the writer didn't mean for us to assume that he was writing exactly verbatim what the quoted writer said. So, the Bible can still be inerrant and have loose quotations.

Ordinary people (like us bloggers) were used to write the Bible. So the fact that there are errors in grammar should not be seen as a problem for inerrancy. A southerner who uses what we may deem to be incorrect grammar can have a reputation as a truthful person though his grammar is poor. A persen like me who tends to spell things wronge can, in an incorectly spelled sentanse, right the trugth (yes I know there are problems in that sentence!). God used regular people in their ordinary language.

5. List and respond to three objections to the concept of the inerrancy of Scripture.

1) Some argue that the Bible is only an authority for "faith and practice." People with this belief will say that in matters of history or science the Bible may be in error and will assure you they believe the Bible to be infallible but not inerrant. Infallible is used to mean without error in matters of faith and practice only.

However, the bible itself says that all scripture is useful for us (2 Tim 3:16) and that its perfect and true (Prov 30:5) and we should believe everything written in the prophets (Acts 24:14, Luke 24:14, Rom 15:4, etc.) . When reviewing historical details from the OT referred to in the NT, we see small details used to instruct NT Christians like the three and a half year famine (Luke 4:25-26) , a plot of ground Jacob gave to Joseph (John 4:5), the donkey speaking (2 Pet 2:16) and more. The NT writers didn't seem to think that some parts of the OT were untrustworthy. Although the major purpose of scripture is related to faith and practice, we need to make sure we don't in doing that assume that it is the only purpose in having the scripture. Part of the purpose of the Bible must be to tell us about minor historical details and other aspects of life. it's better to say that the "whole purpose of Scripture is to say everything it does say, on whatever subject." God put every word there for a reason and we should value what he values.

2) Some say that inerrant is a poor word to use since it's so precise and seems to claim a scientific accuracy that we shouldn't use for the Bible. They may also say that the word is not used in the Bible and so we shouldn't use it either.

But inerrancy has been used for hundreds of years and in that word they have always allowed for limitations of speech in ordinary language. Also we use many words like trinity or incarnation that are not in the Bible but useful for summarizing a true concept in one word.

3) Some argue that since we don't have any original manuscripts talking about an inerrant Bible is useless. However, by comparing manuscripts that we do have, it's possible to reconstruct original documents. Through this process, we know what the original manuscripts said for over 99% of the words. Where there are variation, there are often obvious copy errors. In the small percentage of passages with uncertainty about the original text, usually the general sense of the sentence is clear from context. So, in essence the published scholarly tests of the Hebrew OT and Greek NT "are the same as the original manuscripts." So inerrancy should be applied to those as well as the original manuscripts.

6. Name four possible problems that may result from a denial of biblical inerrancy.

1) If we say that the Bible is not inerrant, then are we allowed to lie in small areas too as we imitate God? This would be a dangerous stance to take.

2) If we deny inerrancy, can we really trust anything God says? If it's known that a person is untruthful in one area, we naturally tend to question everything that person says. Denying inerrency will cause us to question portions of the Bible that we disagree with or that are inconvenient for us.

3) A denial of inerrancy makes our brains a higher standard of truth than God's word. We would be saying that we know better than God in some areas.

4) In denying inerrancy, we have to say that the Bible is wrong in its doctrine about the truthfulness and reliability of God's word which would be a major doctrinal concern.